Demetri Martin
|medium = Stand-up, television, film, music, art |alma_mater=Yale University (B.A.) NYU School of Law (withdrew)|active = 1997–present |birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. |genre = Surreal humor, musical comedy, wit, wordplay, observational comedy, sketch comedy, alternative comedy, deadpan comedy |subject = Everyday life, American culture |children = 2 |spouse = Jen (divorced) |website = }} Demetri Evan Martin (born May 25, 1973) is an American comedian, actor, artist, and musician. He is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, being a contributor on The Daily Show, and his Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin. In stand-up, he is known for his deadpan delivery. Early life Martin was born into a Greek American family in New York City, the son of Lillian and Greek Orthodox priest Dean C. Martin. He grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, and has a younger brother named Spyro and a younger sister named Christene. He attended Toms River High School North and graduated in 1991. Martin graduated from Yale University in 1995. During his time there, he wrote a 224-word poem about alcoholism as a project for a fractal geometry class, which became a well known palindromic poem. He was also a member of the Anti-Gravity Society, whose members juggle objects on Sunday evenings on Yale's Old Campus. Although Martin was admitted to Harvard Law School, he decided to attend New York University School of Law upon receiving a full scholarship. Martin withdrew from law school before the start of his final year, opting to pursue comedy over obtaining his Juris Doctor degree. Career Shortly after leaving law school, Martin started performing stand up in 1997. Four years later, in 2001, Martin caught his first big break in stand-up comedy when he appeared on Comedy Central's stand-up showcase Premium Blend. At the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe he won the Perrier award with his show If I.... The show was turned into a BBC television special in 2004. From 2003 to 2004, Martin wrote for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In 2004, Martin had his own Comedy Central Presents stand-up special. His special was divided into three parts. In the first, he performed in traditional stand-up comedy fashion. In the second segment, he used humorous drawings as visual aids, which would serve either as the punchline or a background. During the third segment, he played a guitar and put on a pseudo-play where he would strum his guitar while alternating between playing harmonica and talking; some of his comedian friends dressed as fairies and dragons acted according to the story he was telling, detailing the magical land from where his jokes came. Martin's mother and grandmother also appeared. Starting in late 2005, he was credited as a contributor on The Daily Show, on which he appeared as the named "Senior Youth Correspondent" and hosted a segment called "Trendspotting." He used this segment to talk about so-called hip trends among youth such as hookahs, wine, guerilla marketing and Xbox 360. A piece about social networking featured his profile on MySpace. On March 22, 2007, Martin made another appearance on The Daily Show, talking about the Viacom lawsuit against Google and YouTube. He is no longer a Daily Show contributor as of 2014. Before starting at the Daily Show, he was offered to audition for SNL but turned it down due to the seven year commitment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ABburGrnFk He has recorded a comedy album titled These Are Jokes, which was released on September 26, 2006. This album also features Saturday Night Live member Will Forte and stand-up comedian Leo Allen. Martin returned to The Daily Show on March 22, 2006, as the new Youth Correspondent, calling his segment "Professional Important News with Demetri Martin". In 2007, he starred with Faryl Millet, a comedian and actress better known for her show Fancy Nancy's Funny Hour, in a Fountains of Wayne music video for "Someone to Love" as Seth Shapiro, and Millet as Beth Mackenzie. Both of them characters in the song. He also starred in the video for the Travis single "Selfish Jean", in which he wears multiple T-shirts with lyrics written on them. On September 2, 2007, Martin appeared on the season finale of the HBO series Flight of the Conchords. He appeared as a keytar player named Demetri. He also had a part in the movie The Rocker (2008) starring Rainn Wilson. Martin played the part of the videographer when the band in the movie was making their first music video. In 2009, he hosted and starred in his own television show called Important Things With Demetri Martin on Comedy Central. Later in June, it was announced his show had been renewed for a second season. The second season premiered, again on Comedy Central, on February 4, 2010. Martin has stated that Important Things will not return for a third season. Prior to completing work on his second season, Martin starred in the comedy-drama film Taking Woodstock (2009), directed by Ang Lee, which premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In the film Martin plays Elliot Tiber, a closeted gay artist who has given up his ambitions in the city to move upstate and help his old-world Jewish family run their Catskill Mountains motel. The film is based on the book written by Tiber. On April 25, 2011, Martin released his first book, titled This Is a Book. Martin played a small role in the 2011 film Contagion. Martin sold his movie concept Will to DreamWorks, and is expected to play a key supporting role. He will play the lead in the film Moon People, a pitch that he sold to Columbia Pictures. He also signed a blind script deal with CBS in October 2010 to produce, write, and star in his own television series. After CBS was shown the pilot for the series, they decided not to air it. On October 2, 2012, Martin released his second comedy album entitled Demetri Martin. Standup Comedian. Martin also voices Ice Bear in the Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears. Martin made his directorial debut in the film Dean, which he also wrote, edited, and stars in. Comedic style Martin is known for being an unconventional stand-up comic. He uses one-liners and drawings on a "large pad," as well as accompanying his jokes with music on either guitar, harmonica, piano, keyboard, glockenspiel, toy bells, ukulele, or tambourine, sometimes all at once. He has cited comedian Steven Wright as an important influence (both use deadpan one-liners in their acts) as well as The Far Side cartoonist, Gary Larson. He has submitted cartoons to the New Yorker magazine at its invitation – and had them rejected. "You gotta get better at drawing. These aren't funny enough," Martin told comedian Marc Maron in 2017. Martin plays instruments on stage and has music playing in the background of his performances as a way of preventing any editing of his performances to better fit for television. However, Martin has also confessed a desire to evolve his comedic style. "I love one-liners, I love jokes...but I also want to talk about how I feel. I want to talk about below-the-neck stuff. It's hard, if that's not where your head goes, it's hard to get comedy out of that...But I want to dig deeper, I want to connect in a different way with the audience. " Personal life According to a July 2011 interview on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron, Martin had a short-lived marriage with a woman named Jen, whom he knew from high school. They began dating after high school, and got married when he was at NYU Law School and she was attending NYU Medical School. This relationship was further analyzed in his one-man show Spiral Bound. Martin has anaphylactic reactions to seafood, poultry, and nuts. On June 1, 2012, Martin married his long-time girlfriend Rachael Beame in Santa Monica, California. He had moved to Santa Monica in 2009. They have a daughter and a son, Eve and Paul. https://www.cnet.com/demetri-martin/''[[The Adam Carolla Show (podcast)|The Adam Carolla Show]], 13 April 2011, 20 minute mark Discography * ''Invite Them Up (2005) * These Are Jokes (2006) * Demetri Martin. Person. (2007) * Important Things with Demetri Martin (2009–2010) * Standup Comedian. (2012) * Live *at the time (2015) Filmography Awards and nominations Books * This Is a Book, April 2011, . * Point Your Face at This, March 2013, . * If It's Not Funny It's Art, September 2017 . References External links ;General * * ;Interviews * Interview from November, 2006, in The A.V. Club * Interview from October 2006, in The DePaulia * Interview by Brian M. Palmer * MP3 Audio Interview on The Sound of Young America public radio show and podcast * Interview Believer Mag Category:1973 births Category:Male actors from New Jersey Category:Male actors from New York City Category:American comedy musicians Category:American comedy writers Category:American male film actors Category:American humorists Category:American people of Greek descent Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American male television actors Category:American television writers Category:Male television writers Category:Living people Category:New York University School of Law alumni Category:People from Toms River, New Jersey Category:Writers from New Jersey Category:Writers from New York City Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners Category:Yale University alumni Category:American writers of Greek descent Category:Male actors of Greek descent Category:Comedians from New York City Category:American male voice actors Category:21st-century American male actors Category:21st-century American comedians